Instruction device for musical instruments



Sept- I7, 1929 E. s. VOTEY 1,728,191

INSTRUCTION DEVICE FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Original Filed Aug. 28, 1926 mu \[lNgNTOR j I M;

g ATT RNEY Patented Sept. 17, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE EDWIN S. VOTEY, OF SUMMIT, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE AEOLIAN COMPANY, A. CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT INSTRUCTION DEVICE FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Application filed August 28, 1926, Serial No. 132,277.

My present invention relates to improvements in means to teach the playing of musical instruments such as a piano wherein signals are actuated at the keys of the musical instrument from a music-roll or record to indicate the keys to be played, my invention specifically relating to means for applying the foregoing to an automatic musical instrument such as a player piano (or automatic organ or the like) whereby the music-roll can be made to operate the piano hammer actions without operating the signals, and vice versa, the signals can be operated without operating the piano hammer actions; also my invention relates to means in said musical instruments, whether automatic or non-automatic, whereby the signals especially lamps, are intermittently actuated at the keys to attract the pupils attention more insistently, said intermittent signals preferably turning automatically into continuous or steady signals as soon as the pupil strikes the related keys. These and other features and advantages of my invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description in connection with the drawings which show in more or less diagrammatic fashion, for the sake of greater clearness, a preferred embodiment of the combination of devices within my present invention.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a fore and aft vertical cross section partly in elevation through a player piano equipped with my invention, said figure for simplicity showing many of the parts and connections merely diagrammatically and out of the true location which they have in practice in the instrument; Fig. 2 shows the automatic action of Fig. 1 in its lower position wherein it is inoperative to actuate the piano keys and hammer actions; and Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the circuits and connections for a plurality of keys and lamps, etc. Like reference numerals indicate like parts in all the figures.

I will now proceed to describe said drawings and preferred embodiment of my invent-ion without, however, unnecessarily limiting the scope of my invention to the de- Renewed January 28, 1929.

tails of said embodiment as shown by said drawings and 1 designates as hereinafter described. the keys of a keyboard musical instrument such as a player piano having signal lamps 2 at the backof the exposed portions of the trolled from the music-sheet or respective keys conmusic-perforations of the roll 3 as they pass over the pneumatic ducts of the tracker bar 4 of said player piano.

The means for actuating or energizing The contact bar 5 is secured to the top of this same bracket 8.

Each striker pneumatic has a wooden rod or sticker 10 attached to its movable board and pro ecting upwardly under the rear end of the related piano key 1,

through guide holes formed in the ing freely elongated contact bar 5.

said stickers pass- 11 is a collar on each sticker for engaging the related contact 6 and carrying it up against the contact bar 5 whenev matic 7 is collapsed,

er the related striker pneu- The contacts 6 are preferably made of resilient or springy wire. The automatic action chest 9 may be of any well known or preferred type and has been purpose] y shown in a simple form thereof. It comprises two horizontal rows of striker pneumatics 7 supposed to be staggered lengthwise of the chest so that the stickers 10 of the lower pneumatics come between the stickers of the upper pneumatics, whereby all of said stickers occupy a single verti cal plane or row under the rear ends of the piano keys.

Each striker pneumatic has the usual valve action only one of which is shown) consisting of a pouch chamber 12 connected by a tube 13 with the corresponding duct in the tracker bar 4;. The pouch 14 of this chamber supports a valve 15 controlling a lower port 16 leading to the exhaust chamber 17 and controlling an upper port 18 leading to the atmosphere. 19 is the usual bleed connecting the pouch chamber 12 with the exhaust chamber 17, the latter being so called because it is connected with an air exhauster not shown.

The aforesaid action chest 9, instead of being supported stationarily under the keybed as is usual, is for the purposes of my invention hinged at 20 by its upper front edge to a horizontal member 21 or the like forming a rigid part of the piano frame extending lengthwise thereof.

Comparing the two positions of the pneumatic action chest 9 in Figs. 1 and 2, it will be seen, when said action has been swung downwardly by the hinge 20 into its position in Fig. 2, that the upper ends of the stickers 10 can no longer engage or operate the piano keys by the collapse of the striker pneumatics. On the contrary, the collapse of said striker pneumatics 7 Will in Fig. 2 only close the contacts 6 of said pneumatics against the contact bar 5.

The illustrated means for swinging or hinging the action chest 9 up and down, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, comprises a toggle consisting of two lovers 22 and 23 pivoted to each other at 24, the lever 22 provided with handle 22 being pivoted at 25 to a bracket fixed to the underside of the piano keybed 26; and the other lever 23 being pivoted at 27 to the lower front corner of the action chest. WVhen the handle 22 of the lever 22 in Fig. 2 is shoved rearwardly ,(that is. from the front of the piano towards the back) until the stop-lug 22 on said lever bears against the underside of the keybed or against a metal plate there provided to receive it, the resulting straightening of the toggle will swing the action chest 9 upwardly about its hinge 20 into the position shown in Fig. 1 and will lock it in that position because the joint 24 of the toggle will be substantially on a dead center with the pivots 25 and 27 at the other. ends of the two toggle levers. 36 is a rigid part of the piano frame or the like extending lengthwise thereofand adapted to receive the upward thrust of the action chest when swung upwardly, as just described, by the straightening of the toggle lever.

On the other hand, in order to lower the action chest, the handle 22 of the lever 22 is pulled outwardly, thereby breaking the toggle and letting the chest swing downwardly into the position shown in Fig. 2, in which position it is maintained by the stop lug 22 on the lever 22 engaging the plate on the underside of the piano keybed and thereby stopping further breaking of the toggle.

Each piano key 1 has a metallic plate 28 on its underside which, when the key is in its normal up position as in Fig. 1, bridges a pair of stationary contacts 29-29 supported under each key. Also, each key has a metallic plate 30 on its upper side, which bridges and electrically connects the pair of stationary contacts 31-31 (suitably supported stationarily above each key) only when the key has been struck to sound its note by operating its hammer action not shown in the drawings but supposed to be operatively supported in the usual manner over the rear end of the individual piano keys.

32 is a, toothed metal wheel against whose teeth bears a metal brush 33, said wheel being rotated by any suitable motor such as by the motor (not shown) that is provided in aplayer piano for driving the musicroll. Said wheel 32 and its brush constitute a circuit breaker or interrupter.

The electric circuits of the lamps 2 include the above described contacts 5-6, 29--29, 31-31 and the interrupter wheel 32 and its brush 33 as follows: One terminal of all the lamps 2 is connected to one contact 31 and to one contact 29 belonging to all of the piano keys (compare Fig. The other terminal of each of said lamps is connected to one, and to only one, of the contacts 6, the particular contact 6 in each instance being that operated by the striker pneumatic 7 belonging to the piano key for which the given lamp is a signal. The contact bar 5 is wired to one pole of the current source 34: whose other pole is wired via a normally closed switch 35 to the interrupter wheel 32 and brush 33. which latter is wired to all of the remaining contacts 29.

The circuits just described will produce a flickering light in the energized lamp or lamps due to the current being interrupted by the interrupter 32. As soon, however, as the pupil plays the particular keys indicated by the flickering lights, the contact plates 30 on the rear ends of said keys will be raised against and will bridge across the related contacts 3131 and will thereby close an electrical circuit or circuits which will cut out the interrupter 32 and instead of the flickering give a steady or continuous light from the said lamps. said new circuit being new traceable as follows:

From one terminal of the active lamp or lamps to and across the related contacts 31-31 via the upper key plates 30,- thence via the normally closed switch 35 to one pole of the. battery 34, thence from said batterys other pole to the contact bar 5, thence to the particular contact or contacts (3 connected 1 actuated in the regular way the contacts -6 will be 34 is kept open circuited and the lamps cannot be lighted even though the contacts 5 and 6 be closed by the operation of the striker pneumatics from the music-sheet.

I will now describe the preferred mode of operation of the foregoing devices as a whole.

A pupil who is learning to play manually the composition represented by the music perforations of the music-roll 8 will first see that the handle 22 of the toggle is in its rear position, which means that the automatic action 9 will be in its up position as in Fig. 1 wherein the striker pneumatic 7, from the music perforations as they pass over the tracker, will operate their stickers 10 to actuate the related piano keys 1 and through them will actuate the related piano hammer actions to sound the related piano tones or notes to play the composition automatically from the music-roll.

The pupil will listen attentively to this rendition and will perhaps repeat the play ing (by operating the usual rewind lever, not shown, with which the player piano regularly equipped) to get the rythm and general character of the piece impressed upon the memory. During these renditions operated by the active strikers 7 but preferably the switch will be open so that the lamps 2 will remain dark so as not to distract the pupils attention while listening to the piece.

Next the switch 35 will be closed and the toggle handle 22 will be pulled forwardly so as to let down the player action 9 into the position shown in Fig. 2 wherein the stickers 10 again actuate the piano keys and therefore cannot sound any notes or tones.

The music-sheet will then be slowly redriven over the tracker whereupon the striker pneumatic 7 actuated by the music perforations will now operate only the contact 6 against the contact bar 5, but as stated will not operate the piano keys or sound the composition.

For the reasons heretofore described, each music perforation as it appears at the tracker under the now assumed conditions will cause the signal lamp of the related piano key to flicker and said lamp will continue to flicker for the duration of travel of said perforation across its tracker duct until the pupil, attracted by the flicker, strikes said key, whereupon the current interrupter 32 which caused the flicker is cut out and the lamp then burns with a steady light.

From the foregoing will be seen that as the pupil strikes the keys indicated by the flickering lamps, the pupil will actually play the composition represented by the music perforations of the traveling sheet, said perforations automatically bringing on said lights at the proper keys to be struck but being inoperative to automatically operate the piano, to do which latter would confuse and vitiate the pupils own manual rendition.

l/Vhat I claim is:

1. In combination, a musical instrument keyboard; means for automatically playing the musical instrument from a music-roll; a series of signals respectively adjacent the keys of said keyboard to indicate the keys to be manually played; and means for automatically operating said signals from said music-roll.

2. In combination, a musical instrument keyboard; means for automatically playing the musical instrument from a music-roll; a series of signals respectively adjacent the keys of said keyboard to indicate the keys to be manually played; means for automatically operating said signals from said music-roll; and means for interrupting at will said automatic playing means without interrupting the signal operating means.

8. In combination, a piano comprising hammer actions operable manually from the keys of the keyooard: means for automatically operating said hammer actions from a music-roll; a series of signals respectively adjacent to the keys of said keyboard to indicate the keys to be manually played; means for automatically operating said signals from said music-roll; and means for adjusting said automatic hammer action operating means into and out of operating position relatively to said hammer actions.

4. In combination, a keyboard; means for automatically playing a musical instrument from a music-roll; a series of electric lamps respectively adjacent the keys of said keyboard to indicate the keys to be manually played; means for automatically energizing said lamps from said music-roll, said means including an interrupter causing the lights from the lamps to flicker; and means in connection with each key which cuts out said interrupter from affecting the lamp of a key as soon as that key is played.

5. In combination akeyboard; a series of electric lamps respectively adjacent the keys of said keyboard to indicate the keys to be manually played; means for energizing said lamps, said means including an automatic interrupter causing the lights from the lamps to flicker; and means in connection with each key which cuts out said interrupter from affecting the lamp of a key as soon as that key is played.

6. In combination, a piano comprising hammer actions operable manually from the keys of the keyboard; means for automatically operating said hammer actions from a music-roll; a series of signals respectively adjacent to the keys of said keyboard to indicate the keys to be manually played; means for automatically operating said signals from said music-roll, said means being carried with and operated by the automatic hammer action operating means; and means for adjusting said automatic hammer action operating means into and out of operating position relatively to said hammer actions;

7. In combination, a piano comprising hammer actions operable manually from the keys of the keyboard; means for automati cally operating said hammer actions from a music-roll; a series of signals respectively adjacent to the keys of said keyboard to indicate the keys to be manually played; means for automatically operating said signals from said music-roll, said means being carried with and operated by the automatic hammer action operating means; means for adjusting said automatic hammer action operating means into and out of operating position relatively to said hammer actions; and means for at will disconnecting the automatic playing means from sounding the musical instrument; and means for at Will disconnecting the automatic signal operatin means from operating the signals.

' ned at New York in the county and State of New York, this 23d day of August, 1926.

EDWIN S. VOTEY. 

